OpenAI Founder Sam Altman Gave Thousands Of People Free Money. Here’s What Happened.

Forbes

A landmark study from OpenResearch provides more data on the benefits of universal basic income, the OpenAI founder’s favored solution for a future in which AI takes everyone's jobs.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahemerson/2024/07/22/openai-founder-sam-altman-gave-thousands-of-people-free-money-heres-what-happened/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, OpenAI founder Sam Altman gave thousands of people free money.

00:06Here's what happened.

00:08For the past eight years, an experimental project financed by OpenAI's billionaire co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman,

00:16has been quietly testing a utopian idea.

00:18What if everyone in the world were given free money, regularly, with no strings attached?

00:25So-called universal basic income was one of the first concepts probed by OpenResearch,

00:30a moonshots lab linked to OpenAI, that Altman has personally contributed tens of millions of dollars to

00:36in a crusade to shape a future he sees as inevitably disrupted by artificial intelligence.

00:42Now, the project is publishing the results of an extensive trial

00:46that cumulatively gave away $45 million to thousands of people across America

00:51in what it has called, quote,

00:53the most comprehensive study ever on guaranteed income.

00:57The study's findings were shared Monday in two papers published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

01:03They are the first of several that OpenResearch plans to release,

01:06detailing a three-year-long trial in which 3,000 participants in Texas and Illinois

01:12were chosen at random to receive a $1,000 or $50 monthly stipend.

01:17The point of the investigation was to learn how our lives might change

01:21if we were given a small, unconditional allowance.

01:24Its initial findings revealed that people who received this money

01:27tended to spend it on basic needs, medical care, and helping others.

01:32Upcoming papers will focus on subjects like children, mobility, crime, and politics.

01:38Throughout the trial, researchers collected data from phone and online surveys,

01:43interviews, and time diaries,

01:45as well as third-party sources like educational records and credit reports.

01:49They also drew blood from willing participants to track changes in certain health biomarkers.

01:55Once their analysis is finished, the team hopes to de-identify and publicly share their data set.

02:01OpenResearch director Elizabeth Rhodes told Forbes, quote,

02:05Our goal is to just produce the data and make it available in whatever form works best for people,

02:10and as widely as possible.

02:13Theirs is hardly the first endeavor to measure the benefits of a guaranteed income,

02:17but the study by OpenResearch is on the larger end of several dozen pilot programs around the world.

02:22The biggest is a 12-year trial in Kenya that started in 2017

02:27and is funded by the philanthropic organization GiveDirectly.

02:31Countries like the U.S. and Canada have also flirted with the concept.

02:35Since the 1980s, residents of Alaska have received annual payments

02:39generated by the state's oil and gas royalties.

02:42And last year, California launched its first state-funded guaranteed income test,

02:47which will target former foster youth.

02:50Karl Weiderquist, a basic income historian and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said,

02:56We're currently experiencing a, quote,

02:58third-wave basic income movement, after witnessing its popularity rise in fits and starts over many decades.

03:05He was contacted by OpenResearch a few years back to provide his thoughts on the trial,

03:08which had not yet begun, and told Forbes they chose, quote,

03:12decent amounts to study.

03:14Now, he wants the federal government to move forward on implementing basic income.

03:19He said, quote,

03:20We have lots of data on what basic income can do.

03:24We just disagree about whether we want this to happen.

03:28Altman has said repeatedly that he sees universal basic income as a poverty solution,

03:33dating back to his time as the president of startup accelerator Y Combinator.

03:37In a blog post from almost a decade ago, he made a unique appeal to researchers.

03:42He wrote, quote,

03:43We'd like to fund a study on basic income.

03:46I've been intrigued by the idea for a while, and although there's been a lot of discussion,

03:50there's fairly little data about how it would work.

03:54Recently, basic income has been evangelized by Silicon Valley technologists,

03:58who see it as a salve for human joblessness caused by automation.

04:02In 2017, Elon Musk claimed, quote,

04:06It's going to be necessary, as, quote,

04:08There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.

04:12Musk changed his mind this year, saying, quote,

04:15We won't have universal basic income. We'll have universal high income.

04:20He didn't explain the difference.

04:22Altman has called it a, quote,

04:24obvious conclusion to his prediction that, quote,

04:27Computers will replace effectively all manufacturing.

04:31For full coverage, check out Sarah Emerson's piece on Forbes.com.

04:37This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:39Thanks for tuning in.

04:52you

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